RE: Patch for Delete key behavior (for dia-0.96.1)

["Lars Ruoff" <lars ruoff alcatel-lucent fr>]

As a simple Dia user, that has used other similar programs, but not very
often, I vote for:
- simple click selects
- Enter when selected enters edit mode
- double click enters edit mode
- simple click elsewhere exits edit mode
- Esc exits edit mode
- I would not advocate any "awkward" (=combination or F-keys) key bindings
for such a simple task as entering/leaving text mode.

Lars Ruoff

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dia-list-bounces gnome org 
> [mailto:dia-list-bounces gnome org] On Behalf Of Lars Clausen
> Sent: vendredi 28 septembre 2007 17:47
> To: discussions about usage and development of dia
> Subject: Re: Patch for Delete key behavior (for dia-0.96.1)
>
> On Fri, 2007-09-28 at 12:01 +0530, Sameer Sahasrabuddhe wrote:
> > On 9/27/07, Michael Ross <michael e ross gmail com> wrote:
> > > My early experiences with computing were with CAD programs.  
> > > Pre-Windows there was AutoCad (DOS) and a number of UNIX based 
> > > systems.  Heavy users of CAD, which has a very strong mouse or 
> > > stylus use component like Dia, would quickly find that 
> placing the 
> > > left hand on the keyboard and the right on the mouse and using as 
> > > many left hand keystroke shortcuts as possible was the 
> most productive manner of operating the programs.
> > Hear! Hear!
> >
> > Allow me to hijack this and once again root for my personal 
> favourite
> > combination: F2 and "second click" to enter text edit mode. 
> This has 
> > the additional plus point that it copies a well-known key-mapping, 
> > from Nautilus and Explorer. In terms of user interaction, I see no 
> > difference between a file icon and a text object ... their 
> appearance 
> > suggests the same interface for the related action of "editing text 
> > visible in that icon". This also does not interfere with 
> selecting an 
> > object by simply clicking on it.
>
> I have no problem with having F2 be one way to enter text 
> edit mode.  My worry about "second click" is that it will be 
> problematic to double-click for properties without 
> accidentally entering text mode all the time, or vice-versa.  
> Hmm... Gnome HIG says that Alt-Enter should be the default 
> shortcut for Properties.  F2 is supposed to be Rename which 
> works fine in some cases, when the text is a name, but a pure 
> text object doesn't have a name as such.  "Enter" or "Space" 
> could also both reasonably be used for entering text mode, 
> since they don't conflict with anything else.  If "Alt-Enter" 
> is Properties, then "Enter" would be fairly logical for 
> editing.  "Enter" text and such... I think I'd rather have 
> that listed in the menu than F2.
>
> > To exit text edit mode, I would vote for Shift-Esc as well 
> as clicking 
> > elsewhere, since Esc is strongly associated with abort. We 
> could even 
> > try "Enter" as an additional shortcut since that will round off the 
> > analogy with file renaming. It does affect the ablity to enter 
> > multiline text, but if we choose to do that, we can use "Ctrl-Enter"
> > like Pidgin to start a new line.
>
> "Enter" as a shortcut works fine for places where you don't 
> expect to be able to have newlines, which is not the case 
> here.  I'd find it an awful interruption of my work flow if 
> every time I think I'm just adding a line, I end up leaving 
> edit mode.  Not logical at all.  I'm mainly thinking of the 
> fact that the user will be entering and leaving text edit 
> mode frequently, and Shift-Esc is awkward.  I find Esc 
> logical for leaving a "special mode", but I'm probably not typical:)  
>
> -Lars
>
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